Dishes from thin boiled dough with meatThere is a filling in almost every national cuisine. In Russia these are pelmeni, in Italy - ravioli, in Georgia - khinkali, in Armenia - boraks, in Central Asia - mantas, in China - voontans, in Buryatia - postures, in Byelorussia and the Baltic countries - koltunai (sorcerers). In addition to the name, they differ in shape, size, types of meat for filling, in molding methods, traditional spices and laborious preparation for a country. Large Asian mantas are prepared, for example, much faster than the little Chinese wine or Russian dumplings. But in fact, for all this seeming variety, the main recipe for cooking is common: in the middle of a slice of dense, thinly rolled dough, you need to put minced meat from raw meat with onions and spices and add the dough around the edges. Requirements for filling in these dishes are only two: it should be tasty and juicy. But the test is much more demanding. It should not only be tasty in ready-made form, but also:

• easy to mix,
• do not stick to your hands,
• be elastic (so that it can be thinned out),
• be malleable, soft and sufficiently sticky (in order to make it easy to mold dumplings),
• be strong (in order not to break when rolling and molding),
• be dense (for pelmeni not to fall apart during cooking).

Many often complain that they made the doughstrictly according to the prescription (with the fact that the recipe is tested - friends or relatives cook the dough prepared for it with excellent results), but it did not work out. The fact is that the recipe taken from the cookbook, from the site or from relatives and friends, usually contains a list of products, their number and order of addition and looks like this: "... take 2 cups of flour, three quarters of a glass of water, 1 egg ... etc". But about the quality of these products and about the properties that the dough acquires from adding each of them, speech, as a rule, does not go. Therefore also it is impossible. Dough for pelmeni can be made from many products. It can be "poor", only from flour and water, and "rich", with the addition of eggs, butter, dairy products and baking powder. But its properties are always directly dependent on the quality of the products that are used for it. And do not be surprised that some dumplings from the "poor" dough are well received, while others from the "rich" do not puddle and fall apart. The main ingredient is flour. If it is of poor quality (and even a good producer can have such a batch of flour) and this was not taken into account during the preparation of the test and the necessary ingredient was not added or the recipe of preparation that is suitable for such flour is not chosen, then there will not be a good result.

Dough products and their properties

In order to make a good dough fordumplings, it is important to know what properties this product will give to it. Understanding what each ingredient gives you, you can always add the one that "asks" your dough, even if it is not included in the recipe. And also you can form a recipe based on your preferences (someone likes a dough more steadily, someone - tight, someone - with egg taste, someone - with a dairy, someone - with a spicy one) or from the availability of products under hand.

• Wheat flour - contains gluten. In poor quality flour it is not enough.
• Buckwheat flour - gives color and buckwheat flavor,but does not contain gluten, therefore it can be used only in a mixture with wheat flour in the following ratio: for 3 parts of wheat flour 1 part of buckwheat flour.
• Semolina - contains a large amount of gluten and starch, it should be added to a low-quality flour that "floats" because it contains insufficient gluten.
• Water.
• Mineral water - contains carbon dioxide, which loosens the dough, so the dough on mineral water turns out to be gentle.
• Eggs - the protein has excellent binding properties, and the yolk gives the egg taste and tenderness.
• Oil - gives tenderness and suppleness.
• Milk - gives viscosity, plasticity and white color.
• Fermented milk products: kefir, yogurt, ryazhenka, sour cream, whey are fermented products, so they loosen the dough a little and make it more tender.
• Soda - loosens the dough not only in an acidic environment, but also at a temperature effect, so it is not necessary to specifically quench vinegar, even if the recipe does not contain acidic products.
• Vodka is a fermentation product, therefore it acts as a baking powder.
• Salt.
• Sugar.
• Vegetable juices - add spicy taste (onion juice) and color (tomato, carrot, beetroot).
• Herbs - give color and aroma.

Basic proportions and general rules

In addition to the quality and properties of products,that the number of products that contain a recipe, almost never can be true. Flour, depending on the quality, can absorb moisture in different ways. Therefore, it is possible that the recipe will contain 2 cups of flour, and in order to bring the dough to the desired consistency, you will need 3. This does not mean that the recipe is bad - just the flour is different. Eggs come in completely different sizes, so it's possible that the recipe contains two eggs, and you need one or three. In addition, the good quality of some ingredients can allow other ingredients to be excluded from the recipe without compromising quality. Dairy products, for example, can have such a fat content that the oil included in the recipe will not necessarily be added. Given these features, when preparing a dumpling test, you can focus on such proportions:

• 1 kg of dry products (wheat flour, a mixture of different varieties of flour, a mixture of flour with semolina). One glass (200 ml) contains 160 g of flour.
• 400 ml of liquid products (water, dairy products, eggs, juices, oil, vodka).

Mix the dough, gradually adding flour, you needuntil it ceases to stick to the hands. If you stopped sticking to your hands, but it seems too soft, then separate a small piece and try to roll it out. By the way it is rolled (can it be rolled out thinly, does it tear at the same time), you will understand, you need to mix it further with flour or not. Try to blind the edges of the rolled dough, whether it is easy to mold, whether the molding does not diverge. It is desirable to check and cut - there should not be flour on the cut. If you make the dough too dense, then, firstly, it will be difficult to unroll, and secondly, the edges will be poorly connected when modeling pelmeni and disperse during cooking. When checking, remember that after mixing, the dough should lie in a cool place for at least an hour - "rest"! During this time, the gluten, which is contained in flour and imparts elasticity, swells. The dough becomes softer, and it will be easier to roll it out!

3 basic ways to prepare the dough

Cold - with this method the dough is kneaded from products of room temperature (or cold). This is a classic recipe for cooking dough.

Custard - with this method the flour is addedfirst a hot liquid (boiling water or boiled milk), and then other ingredients (eggs, butter) are introduced at room temperature if the recipe contains them. Brewed dough cooks faster than cooked in a cold way, and turns tender.

"Custard" - this method is used for"Rich" test. With this method, all liquid ingredients are mixed, a small amount of flour is added (to obtain a consistency such dough, which is used for baking pancakes). Then this liquid dough is put on a slow fire and, with constant stirring, heats up to a thickening, but not to a boil (because boiling folds the egg white). And already on this hot thick mass, which in appearance resembles a custard, kneaded a dough for dumplings. Here is an example of such a recipe:

• To one egg, add milk so much to make a glass (200 g) of milk-egg mixture, and salt.
• Pour 2 tablespoons of flour into a small cauldron, add a little milk-egg mixture and mix until smooth.
• Add the remaining mixture, put on a small fire and, stirring constantly, heat until thick.
• In shallow dishes or on a chopping boardpour 3 cups of flour and pour a thickened mixture into it, knead the dough until it stops sticking to your hands, if necessary, pouring in the flour.
• Roll the dough into a food film or plastic bag and put in a cool place for 1 hour to swell the gluten. Only after that you can stitch pelmeni out of it!

"Poor" recipe for flour and water

The composition of this recipe includes only flour, waterand salt. You can also add baking powder - soda or vodka. Prepare this dough conveniently in a custard way - it turns out gentle and sticky. Molding ravioli from it is a pleasure. It can not even be rolled out, but cut into a small piece for each pelmen and knead it in your hands. The dough is cooked very quickly, but in the finished form it will be translucent, so pelmeni from it is better served with sour cream or in kefir sauce. It is traditionally used for Belarusian and Chinese pelmeni.

"Rich" recipe - put everything we want

Using the "rich" recipe, you need to rememberbasic proportions. It is convenient to first mix all the liquid ingredients, check their total quantity and only then mix them with flour. You can use one and two products, and three, and four - as you want. You can add egg yolks instead of eggs, and you will get a rich egg taste and a yellowish color, and you can only squirrels if you can not have yolks from one of your guests and guests. You can mix the dough only with milk or serum, or you can mix it with them. You can add and vegetable oil, and melted or softened creamy, and you can do without it. Knowing the taste of each product and understanding the properties, you can create a new recipe each time. The classic recipe for a "rich" test is this:

• 1 egg, 1 yolk, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of vodka or 0.5 teaspoons of soda, 2 tbsp. Spoon the melted cream or vegetable oil to mix, add the milk so that the whole mixture turned a glass (200 g).
• in shallow dishes or on a chopping boardpour out 3 tbsp. flour and, gradually pouring the liquid mixture into the flour, knead the dough until it stops sticking to the hands, if necessary pouring the flour.

With butter - so like the Italians

For dumplings, you can make a dough and without water,milk or fermented milk products. It mixes with a mixture of eggs, in which salt is added, and vegetable oil in equal proportions. Of this test, Italian ravioli are made. Instead of vegetable oil, you can put melted butter. Then dumplings will have a pronounced creamy taste.

With baking powder - soda and vodka

Baking powder is added in order for the doughfor dumplings it was softer - then it is more convenient to make pelmeni from it. In addition, it will be more gentle on taste. They can be added to a simple dough, which consists only of flour and water, and in a complex, regardless of other ingredients. If the dough is made only on egg whites, then without the baking powder it can be harsh.

Multicolored and black dumplings

If you want to surprise guests or children, then forcooking dumplings can make and colored dough. Green color can be achieved using instead of water or milk spinach juice, shades of red, using tomato, tomato, beet and pepper juices. Yellow will give turmeric and carrot juice. Brown - buckwheat flour. You can boil the dumplings in the onion broth. You can even make black dumplings, adding ink cuttlefish - a natural product that is used as a seasoning and is part of some medicines. Particularly interesting such dumplings will be with white chicken or fish.

2 ways to make good dough from bad flour

If the flour you bought was of poor quality and you see it by its color or feel by touch, then:

• for 1 cup of flour add 1-2 tbsp. spoons of semolina (it contains gluten, which is lacking in flour of poor quality);
• use a brewing method for such flour.

If you do not pay attention to the quality of flourbefore kneading and already ready dough "floats", glues to hands and spreads over the surface, then add 2-4 st. spoonfuls of semolina, leave for 10-15 minutes. Semolina cakes will absorb excess moisture and add the missing gluten, and then mix with flour until cooked.

Comments

comments